________________
SELECTIONS OF ZÂD-SPARAM, I, 25-II, 6.
161
CHAPTER II. 1. On the coming in of Aharman to the creatures it is thus declared in revelation, that in the month Fravardin and the day Adharmazd, at noon, he came forth to the frontier of the sky. . 2. The sky sees him and, on account of his nature, fears as much as a sheep trembles at a wolf; and Aharman came on, scorching and burning into it. 3. Then he came to the water which was arranged below the earth ?, and darkness without an eyelid was brought on by him; and he came on, through the middle of the earth, as a snake all-leaping comes on out of a hole; and he stayed within the whole earth. 4. The passage where he came on is his own, the way to hell, through which the demons make the wicked run.
5. Afterwards, he came to a tree, such as was of a single root, the height of which was several feet, and it was without branches and without bark, juicy and sweet; and to keep the strength of all kinds of trees in its race, it was in the vicinity of the middle of the earth; and at the self-same time it became quite withered!
6. Afterwards, he came to the ox, the solecreated", as it stood as high as Gâyômard on the
* Bund. III, 12
? Bund. III, 13. Bund. III, 14, 16. • The primeval ox, or first-created representative of animals, as Gayômard was of mankind; from which two representatives all mankind and animals are said to have been afterwards developed. There seems to have been some doubt as to the sex of this mythological ox; here it is distinctly stated to have been a female, but from Bund. X, 1, 2, XIV, 3, it would appear to have been a male, and this seems to be admitted by Dâd-sparam himself, in Chap. IX, 7.
(5)
Digitized by Google